How does a contemporary abstract painter acknowledge the legacy of at least 100 years of abstraction while trying to create work that is fresh and personal? That is the question that hangs in the air every time I enter my studio.

I have no particular aesthetic or socio-political agenda....I'm not interested in any deterministic definition of art....I use abstract styles and motifs as a visual language.... I want meaning to emerge from my work by the act of painting and not the other way around....I have been influenced by painters such as Matisse, de Kooning, Diebenkorn and others....My working method is tentative, using trial and error, adding and removing, following or rejecting ideas until I'm satisfied with a piece or sick of it....

None of that may answer the original question but it seems to be a good way to try.